Signs that your body is dehydrated

Scroll down to find out some of the most common and warning signs of dehydration.

Dehydration is a serious health condition that happens when your body lacks of enough water. As water helps regulating all the bodily functions, dehydration disrupts them and leads you to some critical complications. While not drinking enough water is the most common reason behind this, several other factors such as fever, diarrhea, vomiting or excessive sweating can also cause this condition. Both mild and severe dehydration can affect your health in numerous ways.

Bad breath: Dehydration restricts saliva production in your body and causes bacterial overgrowth in the mouth. This results in making your mouth sticky and causing bad breath.

Skin issues: Your skin requires water to stay moist and smooth. Dehydration removes all the moisture from your skin and causes several issues including dryness/redness/ roughness/ flakiness, cracked skin, clammy skin etc.

Check your skin’s elasticity by pinching it on your hand’s top and then letting it go. If it bounces back to its previous position slowly, then you have mild to moderate dehydration. And if it sticks together, then you are suffering from severe dehydration.

Dark urine: Normal urine is clear and looks yellowish. If your urine is dark yellow or orange in colour, then it’s a clear indication that your body is dehydrated. Also, less or no urination means you are severely dehydrated.

Blood pressure: As your blood is 50-55% of water, dehydration decreases the volume of it and lowers blood pressure. It is very contagious as a low blood pressure can lead you to several other health conditions.

Headache: Even a mild dehydration can upset your brain tissues and cause a headache. Also, low blood pressure (which can be caused by lack of water) is another reason behind headache.

Fever and Chills: While cold, flu and any kind of infection are known as the major triggers of fever and chills, dehydration can also contribute in these symptoms. When your body doesn’t have enough water, its temperature increases rapidly and ends up having fever and chills.

Fatigue: Water keeps all your body muscles strong and boosts your energy level. Dehydration restricts your bodily functions and lowers the blood pressure level, both of which make you feel excessively tired.

Increased heart rate: As dehydration lowers your blood volume, the heart starts working harder to maintain the blood supply throughout the body. This increases your heart rate and can even lead you to some critical cardiovascular diseases. An increased heart rate also contributes in rapid breathing.

Cravings for sweet food items, digestive disorders, dizziness, nausea, body pain, mood changes, memory problems, unconscious etc. are some other signs that your body is dehydrated.